Method and apparatus to invoke a shopping ticker

ABSTRACT

A shopping ticker can be invoked when the viewer presses a BUY button on a remote control while a television program is being shown. The television program, which can be a commercial, may not necessarily have an interactive commerce opportunity originally associated with it. However, instead of ignoring a signal sent from the remote control when the BUY button is pressed, the signal is processed to invoke the shopping ticker. The shopping ticker can include advertisements, links to e-commerce opportunities (including merchant web sites), product information, or other information that may be potentially useful to help initiate a transaction with the viewer, including context-sensitive shopping information that is related to the subject matter of the television program. A commerce opportunity is thus created in a situation where there originally would not have been such an opportunity and where the viewer&#39;s remote control action would otherwise have been ignored.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This disclosure relates generally to presentation of information on adisplay device, and in particular but not exclusively, relates topresentation of an interactive television “ticker” for shopping.

2. Description of the Related Art

An important business element in the production and distribution oftelevision programming is revenue received from manufacturers andservice providers who pay to advertise their products. The ubiquitoustelevision commercial is the manifestation of this enterprise. Thesurvival of a television program is heavily dependent on the advertisingrevenue that can be realized from the television program. Advertisers inturn rely on the ability of the television program to draw viewers whothen become potential purchasers of the advertised products.

Television and interactive technologies are beginning to converge. In atypical scenario, a television commercial can be provided with a“trigger” that renders an icon on television display screen, signalingto the viewers that there is a potential e-commerce opportunity. Oncethis icon is seen, the viewer can press a “BUY” button or other buttonon a remote control to initiate an e-commerce transaction.

Viewers can then obtain information about goods and services that areadvertised in the commercial by, for example, connecting to the Internet(via the BUY button and a set top box) while viewing the commercial andordering the advertised products. A user interface for this e-commercetransaction can comprise a hypertext markup language (HTML) web page orpop-up window that is rendered on the display screen as an overlay overthe current television program or in full screen. Picture-in-picture(PIP) features are also available, where the e-commerce window isdisplayed concurrently with the television program image (or viceversa).

Unfortunately, not all commercials or other television programming areaccompanied by e-commerce or informational opportunities. The contentprovider, merchant, advertiser, or broadcaster, for instance, may havechosen not to provide (or did not have the capability to provide) aninteractive e-commerce experience along with the particular piece oftelevision programming. Because of this, there is typically no icon thatis rendered on the television display screen to indicate availability ofan e-commerce opportunity under such circumstances. Thus, when theviewer presses the BUY button on the remote control, the set top boxwill generally ignore the resulting signal or command that is sent fromthe remote control and will not render anything on the display screen.Viewer frustration is likely to result as the viewer continues to pressthe BUY button and wonder why nothing is being displayed to allow him tomake a purchase.

This situation is wasteful of a potential revenue opportunity, since theviewer has indicated an interest in making a purchase by pressing theBUY button. Moreover, the potential revenue opportunity is lost whetherthe viewer did deliberately press the BUY button in response to anadvertisement in a commercial or whether it was pressed accidentally(such as by sitting on the remote control, intending to press adifferent button, exploring the buttons of the remote control, kidsplaying with the remote control, etc.). Either way, the signal from theremote control is ignored and no commerce opportunity is provided to theviewer.

This is an unfortunate situation given that some studies have shown thatviewers are generally annoyed by or unresponsive to commercials, banneradvertisements, advertisement pop-up windows, etc. Advertisers and otherparties thus have to make the most out of fleeting opportunities whenthey have (or can potentially obtain) viewers' attention and interestsin purchasing an advertised product. The ultimate success of advertisingis dramatically reduced when, as described above, no response isprovided to the viewer when the viewer presses the BUY button on theremote control.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention aredescribed with reference to the following figures, wherein likereference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various viewsunless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example interactive video casting systemthat can implement a shopping ticker in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating example components that can beincluded in the system of FIG. 1 to provide a shopping ticker inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a client terminal that canbe used in the system of FIG. 1 to present a shopping ticker.

FIG. 4 is an example screen shot in conjunction with a remote controlfor implementing one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 5-6 are screen shots depicting invocation of a shopping ticker inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating components that can interact topresent a shopping ticker according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating invocation and presentation of ashopping ticker according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of techniques to invoke a shopping ticker, such as when aviewer presses a BUY button while watching television, are describedherein. In the following description, numerous specific details aregiven to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of theinvention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, thatthe invention can be practiced without one or more of the specificdetails, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In otherinstances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shownor described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, theappearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” invarious places throughout this specification are not necessarily allreferring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments.

As an overview, one embodiment of the invention provides an interactiveshopping ticker. The shopping ticker can be invoked when the viewerpresses a BUY button (or other button) on a remote control while atelevision program is being shown on a television set. The televisionprogram, which can be a commercial, may not necessarily have aninteractive commerce opportunity associated with it when the BUY buttonis pressed. However, instead of ignoring a signal sent from the remotecontrol when the BUY button is pressed, software in a set top box (orother client terminal) responds to the signal by invoking the shoppingticker.

The shopping ticker can include advertisements, links to e-commerceopportunities (including merchant web sites), product information, orother information that may be potentially useful to help initiate atransaction with the viewer. Therefore, a commerce opportunity iscreated in a situation where there would not have been such anopportunity associated with the current television program and where theviewer's remote control action would otherwise have been ignored.

According to various embodiments, the advertisements and other shoppinginformation presented in the ticker can be context-sensitive in thatthey relate to the subject matter of the television program currentlybeing shown. Thus, while the television program itself does not providean interactive commerce opportunity, its subject matter can be used toselect context-related information for the shopping ticker, therebypresenting the viewer with information that is directly responsive tohis interests that originally motivated him to press the BUY button. Inother situations, where the viewer did not intentionally press the BUYbutton (e.g., the BUY button was pressed accidentally), the shoppingticker at least provides context-sensitive information that may motivatethe viewer to conduct a transaction. One technique to providecontext-sensitive information in the shopping ticker is through the useof triggers, for instance.

Moreover, the term “ticker” as used herein is intended to generallydescribe a presentation of information on a display screen, such as adisplay screen for a television, and is not intended to be limitedsolely to implementations where the information is presented in a mannerto exactly mimic a stock market ticker. In one embodiment, the tickercan comprise text and graphics that are scrolled or otherwise presentedin a region of the display screen, along with a television image (suchas an image from a live broadcast or from a recorded program). Variousembodiments will be described herein in the context of “scrolling” theticker information. It is to be appreciated that the term “scrolling” ismerely illustrative of a technique to present dynamic tickerinformation, and that this term, in some embodiments, can encompassimplementations where the ticker information is presented via screensegments of information, text segments, one-line-at-a-time,one-sentence-at-a-time, one-word-at-a-time, and the like, rather thanthe traditional format of one-character-at-a-time typically associatedwith stock market tickers. Moreover, the term “scrolling” is usedgenerically herein for simplicity to refer not only to vertical movementfrom bottom to top, but also movement from right to left (often referredto as “crawl”) or movement in other directions.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an interactive video casting system 100 fordistributing ticker content, Internet content, and television contentaccording to an embodiment of the invention. In accordance with anembodiment of the present invention, the system 100 can be integratedwith a cable television distribution system to provide interactivetelevision tickers. The system 100 includes an Internet 102, a pluralityof content sources 104, a plurality of distribution centers (depicted asthe head-ends or H/Es 106), and a plurality of client terminals 108(depicted as set top boxes). In addition, a content source 104 isdepicted as receiving data from data feeds 112, advertisement servers114, image sources 116, and streaming video sources 118. The contentsource 104 may also receive content from a broadcast video source. Forthe sake of clarity and to avoid clutter, not all of these sources areshown in FIG. 1 for each content source 104.

The plurality of content sources 104 is coupled to the Internet 102. Forexample, a content source 104 may comprise a web site portal such asGo2Net.com™, or a news web site such as CNN.com™, or other types ofsources. Each content source 104 may have various data feeds 112,servers 114, and sources 116/118 coupled to it.

For example, news or stock quote feeds 112 (including data for tickers)may be fed into the content source 104. Servers 114 may provideadvertisements for insertion into multimedia content delivered by thecontent source 104 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.Sources 116 and 118 may provide images 116, streaming video 118, andother content to the content source 104. Various other feeds, servers,and sources may also be coupled to the content source 104 of FIG. 1. Anexample configuration of components that can be integrated with thesystem 100 to provide ticker information to client terminals 108 isshown in FIG. 2.

The Internet 102 comprises a network of networks and is well known inthe art. Communications over the Internet 102 can be accomplished usingstandard protocols such as transmission control protocol/internetprotocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transferprotocol (FTP), or other protocols. Web sites, such as merchant websites, can be included within or otherwise be in communication with theInternet 102. The Internet 102 is coupled to the plurality ofdistribution centers 106, and each distribution center 106 is in turncoupled to a plurality of client terminals 108, which may comprise a settop box, a PC, an interactive television set, or another type ofcommunication device or display device.

In alternative or in addition to the Internet 102 being used todistribute multimedia content (including ticker data and advertisements)from the content sources 104 to distribution centers 106, communicationschannels or networks 120 (which can include satellite deliverysources/networks) apart from the Internet 102 may couple one or morecontent sources 104 to one or more distribution centers 106. One exampleof such an alternate path for communications is illustrated by a firstdashed line 120 in FIG. 1. Alternately or additionally, peeringconnections may exist between distribution centers 106. One example ofsuch peering is illustrated by a second dashed line 122 in FIG. 1. Othercommunications configurations are also possible and are included withinthe scope of the present invention.

Caches 110 may be provided at (or otherwise coupled to) the distributioncenters 106. Such caches 110 may be used to increase the performance inthe delivery of multimedia content (including ticker data andadvertisements) to the client terminals 108. For example, larger filesfor video and other high bandwidth content may be stored in such caches110, which may be closer-in-time to the client terminals 108 than to thecontent sources 104. In addition, reliability and guaranteed bandwidthmay be provided because the Internet 102 is not in-between such caches110 and the client terminals 108. In one embodiment, the caches 110 orother storage media in the system 100 can store ticker information andadvertisements, rather than or in addition to having such informationbuffered, cached, or otherwise stored at the client side.

In an embodiment, servers may be present in the distribution centers106, with such servers including or being coupled to the caches 110 orother storage media. Alternatively or in addition, these servers may belocated remotely from but still communicatively coupled to thedistribution centers 106, via the Internet 102 or other communicationschannels or networks. Examples of such servers that can be used inconnection with providing ticker information to client terminals 108 areshown in FIG. 2.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, different ormultiple portals may be used to access the information provided throughthe interactive video casting systems of FIG. 1, based on the type ofclient terminal being used by the end user. That is, for example, atelevision portal may be provided for an end user that uses a televisionset coupled to the client terminal 108 to access the information. A PCportal may be provided for an end user that uses a PC to access theinformation. Portals can be provided for end users that use cellulartelephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), audio devices, and thelike to access the interactive video casting system 100 of FIG. 1.

Such portals may be provided in several possible ways. In oneembodiment, the client terminal (e.g., the end user's display device oraudio device) can be suitably configured with an adapter that includeshardware and software. The adapter converts the television signals, theInternet or web page content, or other information provided from theinteractive video casting system into a digitized format or other formatthat is compatible with the operational features of the particularclient terminal 108.

In another embodiment, a cable service provider can deliver signalshaving different formats to the various client terminals 108, with theclient terminals not necessarily having special adapters. Therefore, asan example, the cable service provider or other party cangenerate/deliver information (e.g., television programming, web pagecontent, ticker information, and the like) having a format that iscompatible for end users that receive the information via a televisionset. The cable service provider or other party can also generate/deliverthe same information (e.g., simultaneously with the television portal onthe same communication link, separately on a different communicationlink, on-demand independent of the television portal, and the like)using a format that is compatible with end users that receive theinformation via PCs, PDAs, cellular telephones, and the like. Thus, theterm “interactive video casting system” is used to describe generally asystem that can deliver video information and other information over anynetwork and any network-compatible device by broadcasting, multicasting,or unicasting. An “interactive television system” is one type of or onemeans of access to an “interactive video casting system.”

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating example components that can beincluded in the system 100 of FIG. 1 to provide data for tickers inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. The data feeds 112include a plurality of different ticker data feeds 200 that provide avariety of different topical data that can be displayed in a ticker. Forinstance, the different ticker data can include sports data, weatherdata, national news, and so forth. The sources that can provide thisdata can include entities such as Reuters™, The Sporting News™ (TSN),Associated Press™ (AP™), and others (including feeds that can provideadvertisements or other shopping-related ticker data). In oneembodiment, the ticker data from the data feeds 200 comprises “raw”unformatted data (e.g., data with minimal or no formatting or graphics).

The raw ticker data is provided to a feed server 202. In an embodiment,the feed server 202 operates as a content aggregator that pulls orotherwise receives the raw ticker data from the data feeds 200. The feedserver 202 also performs data manipulation on the received ticker datato manipulate the data into a database format so that the data can beindexed and stored. A feed engine 204, which can be embodied in softwareor other machine-readable instructions stored on one or moremachine-readable media according to an embodiment, can reside and run inthe feed server 202 to perform at least some of this data manipulation.

The feed server 202 is coupled to provide the manipulated ticker data toa production server 206. The production server 206 includes or isotherwise coupled to a database 208. The feed engine 204 calls on thedatabase 208, and instructs the database 208 where to place the variousticker data. For example, the database 208 can include a plurality ofdatabase code objects 210 that cooperate with ticker tables 212 (such asa sports table 214, a weather table 216, and so forth) to index or storeticker data. The feed engine 204 calls the database 208 and identifiesthe database code objects and ticker tables where the ticker data is tobe stored.

The various components of the database 208, such as the ticker tables212, can also be configured in a manner that optimizes the organizationand distribution of the ticker data. For example, ticker data unique tovarious geographic regions can be segregated from or otherwiseidentifiable from each other, so that ticker data that is relevant toonly particular client terminals 108 need not be broadcast to all clientterminals. For instance, California weather information can besegregated from Oregon weather information in the database 208 in amanner that client terminals 108 of California users do not receiveOregon weather information, unless specifically requested. This featureimproves transmission efficiency and transmission time, since thebandwidth of communication paths to certain client terminals 108 are notclogged by non-relevant ticker data.

In an embodiment, the production server 206 can also perform datamanipulation, such as before the data is stored in the database 208,while it is stored in the database 208, or after the data is retrievedfrom the database 208 for transmission to client terminals 108. Forinstance, the production server 206 can perform data manipulation toplace the ticker data into a format that is “consumable” or otherwisecompatible with operating software of the client terminals 108. Forinstance, the production server 206 can place the ticker data intoformats such as hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markuplanguage (XML), or other suitable formats.

The production server 206 is coupled to provide ticker data from thedatabase 208 to one or more distribution servers 218, which may belocated in or otherwise communicatively coupled to a distribution center106 (such as a head-end). The distribution server 218 operates toprovide the ticker data to the client terminals 108 via several possiblecommunication paths or channels, as will be described with reference toFIG. 3.

It is to be appreciated that the components shown in FIG. 2 are merelyillustrative of the various components of one embodiment that can beused to provide ticker information. For example, other embodiments canuse more or fewer servers, as well as different components, to performthe various operations. Moreover, the various servers and theircomponents (such as the feed engine 204 and the database 208) can bedistributed elsewhere in the system 100, instead of or in addition tothe locations shown in FIG. 2. There may be multiple feed servers 202,production servers 206 and databases 208, distribution servers 218, andso on to account for load balancing, redundancy in case of outages orbroken connections, and other factors that can affect distribution ofticker information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a client terminal 108 forthe system 100 of FIG. 1 that can implement an embodiment of theinvention to present a shopping ticker. For the sake of simplicity ofillustration and explanation, only the components that are germane tounderstanding an embodiment of the invention are shown in FIG. 3. It isunderstood that the embodiment of the client terminal 108 shown in FIG.3 can have other components different than or in addition to what isshown. Moreover, the various illustrated components may be suitablycombined in some embodiments, instead of being separate. It also shouldbe noted that the client terminal 108 is only one embodiment of theinvention and that some or all of the components described as embodiedin the client terminal 108 can be incorporated into a client televisionrather than in a separate device. A bus 301 is shown symbolically todepict coupling between the various components.

To briefly describe an embodiment, the client terminal 108 receivesticker data and advertisement data from the distribution server 218 orother sources, and then performs the appropriate processing of the datato allow the data to be displayed in a ticker on a display screen of atelevision set. The client terminal 108 can be passive in that itreceives the ticker data (as well as updates) and when the data is sentby the distribution server 218, independently of whether the clientterminal 108 requested the ticker data (e.g., the distribution server218 “pushes” the data to client terminals 108). Alternatively or inaddition, the client terminal 108 can poll or otherwise explicitlyrequest the data from the distribution server 218, including polling thedistribution server 218 for updated data (e.g., the client terminal 108“pulls” the data from the distribution server 218). In some embodiments,both push and pull mechanisms may be involved.

Once it receives the ticker data from the distribution server 218, thedata can be buffered or cached (if appropriate), and processed forpresentation on the display screen of the television set. In anembodiment, ticker software in the client terminal 108 can work inconjunction with a ticker template or other ticker user interface todisplay the ticker (and its ticker items) in the appropriate scrollinglayout, format, locations, time intervals, topics, content, and soforth. In one embodiment where the ticker data is obtained from theInternet 102, this ticker software can comprise browser-based softwareor other software capable to cooperate with a web browser. According tovarious embodiments, the ticker can be generated and made interactivethrough Flash, C++, Java, HTML, or other suitable code or software.

The client terminal 108 comprises a first tuner 300 to tune to a MovingPictures Experts Group (MPEG) stream 302 or other video source. Thestream 302 may include video, live transmission, and/or applicationcode, including corresponding text and graphic resources. In anembodiment where tickers are provided in an integrated manner along withthe video signal, the ticker can be received by way of the stream 302.One skilled in the art will recognize that there will be a plurality ofstreams 302, depending on the number of channels and programs that thecable service provider makes available to the client terminal 108.

The first tuner 300 is coupled to a decoder 306 that decodes the video,application, and/or audio into a format that is compatible with atelevision set coupled to the client terminal 108. The client terminal108 may include a second tuner 310. The second tuner 310 can work inconjunction with a cable modem 312 to obtain ticker data 314 from theInternet 102, such as via a Data Over Cable Service InterfaceSpecifications (DOCSIS) connection with the distribution server 218. Inaddition to the ticker data 314, advertisements and Internet content canalso be received by the client terminal 108 by way of the DOCSISconnection through the second tuner 310 and the cable modem 312. In oneembodiment, the second tuner 310 can be used to obtain suchadvertisement data from a server (such as that used by a merchant oradvertiser), remote database, Internet location or web site, or othersource depicted in FIG. 1.

In addition, the client terminal 108 includes or is coupled to an inputinterface 315, through which other sources 316 of ticker data (includingshopping data) can be provided to the client terminal 108. An example ofthe input interface 315 comprises an out-of-band tuner that can be usedto tune to ticker data or advertisements that are provided via anout-of-band channel. In an embodiment, the out-of-band channel(s) cancomprise one or more low-bandwidth frequencies carried on the samecoaxial cable used to provide the MPEG streams and the Internet content.The out-of-band channel(s) tuned to by the input interface 315 toreceive ticker data or advertisements can be used alternatively or inaddition to the DOCSIS channel tuned to by the second tuner 310 in suchan embodiment. In one embodiment, user transactions or other responsesin response to information displayed in a shopping ticker may becommunicated to and from the client terminal 108 via the input interface315.

Further alternatively or in addition, the input interface 315 cancomprise another television broadcast tuner (such as the first tuner300) to tune to one or more channels that may be carrying ticker data oradvertisements. For example, ticker data (including updates) andadvertisements may be broadcast in one or more channel frequenciesspecifically dedicated for transmission of such data to client terminals108. Thus, as an illustration, the first tuner 300 can tune to a channelshowing a television program, while the input interface 315 is tuned toreceive data (in the form of packets, for example) from a ticker channelor shopping channel to allow a ticker having shopping informationtherein to be simultaneously shown on the same television screen as thetelevision program.

Yet another example of the input interface 315 is an interface toreceive outputs of recording devices such as a PVR or a digital videorecorder (DVR) that may have ticker data (including shoppinginformation), which may be received via download. Alternatively or inaddition, the input interface 315 can comprise a communicationinterface, such as an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber linemodem, a wireless communication interface, and so forth, which canprovide a link to the server 218 to receive ticker data andadvertisements, for instance.

An embodiment of the client terminal 108 may include a processor 320 tocontrol operation of the various components shown in FIG. 3. Theprocessor 320 may work in conjunction with ticker software or othermachine-readable instructions stored on at least one machine-readablestorage medium 322. Such ticker software may cooperate with theprocessor 320 to invoke a ticker in response to a button press on aremote control, present ticker data in a ticker template or other screeninterface or user interface, configure the format and layout of theticker displayed on the display screen of the television, select andinsert an advertisement or other shopping information into a ticker,process received user commands related to responding to informationpresented in the ticker, and other operations. In an embodiment, theticker software can be pre-installed in the client terminal 108. Inanother embodiment, the ticker software may be installed by way ofdownload from the system 100.

An audio and video output subsection 308 of the client terminal 108receives decoded video and/or other applications (including tickertemplates and the ticker data presented therein), and provides thedecoded information to a television set. A wireless interface 318operates to receive commands from a user input device (such as awireless remote control). Such commands can include user commands toinvoke a ticker, such as when the viewer presses a BUY button, as wellas other commands related to interaction with the invoked ticker, in anembodiment. The wireless interface 318 provides these commands to theprocessor 320 so that the processor 320 can cooperate with the tickersoftware to perform the corresponding operation.

In an embodiment of the invention, the storage medium 322 can also storeuser data 324 related to operation of the ticker. For instance, the userdata 324 can include user settings for the ticker (such as location,font size, topics or other subject matter displayed, and others). In anyof these storage locations, multiple sets of user data 324 may bestored, such as in implementations where multiple users in a householdlog into a same client terminal 108.

The storage medium 322 can include cache(s), buffer(s), or other typesof storage locations where ticker data, advertisements and shoppingdata, or other information may be stored. For example, received sportsscores can be stored in the storage medium and retrieved during theappropriate times during the course of the scrolling of the ticker. Theticker data stored in the storage medium 322 can be replaced as updatesare received from the distribution server 218. In one embodiment, lesstime-dependent ticker information (e.g., information that need notnecessarily be updated several times per day), including graphics forweather displays, game schedules, some types of advertisements or othershopping information, and the like, can be downloaded to the storagemedium 322 during non-peak television viewing periods (such as late atnight), and then retrieved from the storage medium 322 when that pieceof information is appropriate for presentation in the ticker.

FIG. 4 is an example screen shot in conjunction with a remote control410 for implementing one embodiment of the invention, while FIGS. 5-6are television screen shots depicting a shopping ticker invoked inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention. For simplicity ofexplanation, not all of the possible types of information capable ofbeing displayed in the shopping ticker are shown or described, as suchother possible information can be ascertained by examination of thefeatures specifically shown in the figures. Moreover, it is to beappreciated that the format, layout, direction, content, and othercharacteristics of the ticker shown in FIGS. 5-6 are merely illustrativeand that variations are possible.

In FIG. 4, a television set 400 is coupled to the client terminal 108 ina manner that allows a display screen 402 of the television set to showa television program 404. The television program 404 in this example isa basketball game, and it is appreciated that other types of televisionprograms can be shown, such as commercials, public serviceannouncements, and so forth. The television program 404 may becompletely non-interactive or it may have at least some degree ofinteractivity. For instance, the television program 404 may beaccompanied by triggers such that if the viewer presses an INFO button(not shown) on the remote control 410, supplemental information relatedto the television program (such as player statistics) is rendered on thedisplay screen 402. According to various embodiments, the availabilityof the supplemental information may or may not be indicated to theviewer via on-screen icons (such as an INFO icon displayed on thedisplay screen 402).

In other examples of interactivity, the television program 404 maycomprise a commercial for an advertised product, accompanied by anon-screen BUY button or other indicator to indicate availability of apurchase opportunity. In response to the on-screen BUY button, theviewer can press a BUY button 430 on the remote control 410 to initiatean on-line transaction for the advertised product.

The wireless remote control 410 is in communication with the clientterminal 108 (via the wireless interface 318) to perform conventionaltelevision-viewing operations and also to invoke and interact with aticker, as will be described later below for an embodiment. The remotecontrol 410 includes an alphanumeric keypad 412 that the viewer can useto select television channels or to interact with a ticker. Buttons 418can comprise buttons that are similar to play, rewind, fast forward,pause, etc. buttons usable for recording devices or for tickeroperations. Arrow keys 416 may be used for navigation within a ticker orwithin other applications (such as an electronic program guide), whilean OK button 419 may be used to confirm viewer selections.

In an embodiment, the remote control 410 can include a ticker button414, which if pressed when the user intentionally wishes to view aticker, causes a command to be sent to the client terminal 108 toinstruct the ticker software to render the ticker on the display screen402. If the ticker button 414 is pressed again, the ticker is taken offthe display screen 402. Alternatively or in addition, a TV button 422can be pressed to dismiss the ticker.

As previously described above, one embodiment of the invention renders ashopping ticker having advertising information or other shopping-relatedinformation therein when the viewer presses (intentionally orunintentionally) the BUY button 430, whenever an interactive commerceopportunity is not explicitly provided for the television program 404(such as a non-interactive commercial). For instance, the viewer mightpress the BUY button 430 intentionally while watching a non-interactivecommercial (as the television program 404), mistakenly thinking that hecan initiate an interactive purchase of the advertised product. Insteadof ignoring the viewer's button press, however, an embodiment of theinvention determines that a signal or user command from the remotecontrol 410 cannot result in interaction with the television program 404and therefore renders a shopping ticker. In another example, the viewermight press the BUY button 430 when an interactive television program(for which only non-commerce supplemental information is available viathe INFO button, such as player statistics for the basketball game ofFIG. 4) is being shown. Rather than being presented with thenon-commerce supplemental information or being ignored, however, theviewer is presented with a shopping ticker.

It is to be appreciated that these are only a few of the possibletelevision viewing scenarios by which the viewer may (intentionally orunintentionally) press the BUY button 430 to invoke the shopping ticker.Some other scenarios include instances where the viewer may have pressedthe BUY button 430 accidentally by having “sat” on the remote control410, when children may have been playing with the remote control 410,and so forth. Moreover in some embodiments, the remote control 410 neednot necessarily have a dedicated or explicit BUY button 430 as depictedin FIG. 4. A different type of button or buttons (related to shopping orcommerce) may be pressed by the viewer to invoke the shopping tickerwhenever the current television program 404 does not necessarily have acommerce opportunity associated with it. Such buttons may include notonly buttons on the remote control 410, but also on-screen buttons onthe display screen 402 or buttons on other devices.

FIGS. 5-6 are screen shots depicting invocation of a shopping ticker inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention, such as invocationafter the viewer has pressed the BUY button 430 when a commerceopportunity was not originally available. A ticker 506 is shownscrolling across the bottom of the display screen 402. The ticker 506can be in a screen interface that overlays the television program 404,or the television program 404 may be scaled appropriately on the displayscreen 402 to fit the screen interface for the ticker 506 and therebyavoid the need for an overlay. An embodiment of the ticker 506 displaysthe current time 521.

In the example of the ticker 506, the ticker 506 is scrolling from rightto left (as symbolically depicted by an arrow 508). It is to beappreciated that in other embodiments, the ticker 506 may be scrollingin different directions and may also be positioned differently on thedisplay screen 402. For the sake of illustration, the ticker 506 isshown as being set in a cycle where it is presenting NBA™ basketballadvertisements (e.g., “Buy Sonics Jersey.” is a moving ticker text itemor advertisement 509 that is being displayed in a scroll region for a“Shopping” category 520 and an NBA™ subcategory 505). There may be anysuitable number of categories 517 and subcategories 507 through whichthe user can navigate. In this particular example, the ticker 506 is a“shopping ticker” in that the currently selected category is theShopping category 520—other formats of shopping tickers are possible. Anavigation control 524, such as a stationary center focus box or movableselection rectangle, can be used to make navigation selections, such asto view advertisements for other subcategories or other products.

The ticker data, such as advertisements, displayed in the ticker 506 maybe presented from feeds provided from the components shown in FIG. 2.Local insertion of advertisements from previous downloads is alsoavailable. Techniques for automatic advertisement insertion into aticker that can be used by one embodiment of the invention to present ashopping ticker are disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/112,071,entitled “AUTOMATIC ADVERTISEMENT INSERTION INTO AN INTERACTIVETELEVISION TICKER,” filed Mar. 28, 2002, with inventor Thomas P.McKenna, Jr., assigned to the same assignee as the present application,and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the invention where theadvertisement 509 in the ticker 506 and is directly related to orotherwise in context with the television program 404. More specifically,assuming that the television program 404 is a live Sonics basketballgame, the advertisement 509 can present a purchase opportunity that isdirectly related to the subject matter of the television program (e.g.,an advertisement to purchase a Sonics jersey in this example). Thus,while an interactive (or non-interactive) purchase opportunity was notoriginally present with the television program 404, pressing the BUYbutton 430 in conjunction with the processing of triggers has generateda new purchase opportunity (through the ticker 506) that is directlyrelated to the television program 404.

Direct correlation between the shopping information scrolled by theticker 506 and the content of the television program 404 can beperformed via use of Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF)triggers or other triggering mechanisms (such as those available fromWink) according to various embodiments. For instance, identification(ID) information or other information can be placed in the verticalblanking interval (VBI) of signal the television program 404 in a mannerthat identifies the teams in the game, the type of sport, the locationof the game, time of the game, and so forth. Such ID information can beextracted and processed, based on techniques familiar to those skilledin the art having the benefit of this disclosure, to identify and selectcontext-sensitive advertisements or other shopping information topresent in the ticker 506. In the example of FIG. 5, triggers from thesignal of the television program 404 have been processed by software toselect the advertisement 506 (for clothing) of one of the teamsidentified and involved in the basketball game.

When the advertisement 509 scrolls into a center focus box 528, theviewer can then press the INFO button or the OK button 419 on the remotecontrol 410 so as to view additional details of the advertisement forpurposes of beginning a purchase transaction. In one embodiment,responding to the advertisement 509 in this manner results in access ofadditional information via a hyperlink or other link (which may includechannel tuning), including display of the additional information in apop-up window or PIP window. The advertisement 509 can be presentedwithin the scroll region of the ticker 506 (or in other areas on thedisplay screen 402) in bold, in a different color (which may indicate ahyperlink or other link), accompanied with an icon, underlined, or viasome other technique to alert the viewer that he can interact with theadvertisement 509 to perform a purchase.

Alternatively or in addition, the ticker 506 may present such additionalinformation within its scroll region itself in a manner that the viewercan perform a purchase through the ticker interface. For instance aprompt 512 can advise the viewer to select a jersey size and acorresponding selection 514 of sizes S, M, L, and XL. According to oneembodiment of the invention, the viewer may then perform the resultingpurchase transaction within the ticker 506 itself by waiting for theprompt 512 and the selections 514 to scroll into the center focus box528, and pressing the OK button 419 at the appropriate times. Othersuitable techniques for entering viewer responses may be used, suchpressing a number assigned to a selection item or by navigating to aselection via a movable selection rectangle.

In other embodiments, transaction windows (such as HTML web pages orpop-up windows) can be rendered on the display screen 402, through whichthe viewer can make selections and perform other purchase actions. Inyet other embodiments, the ticker 506 can scroll telephone numbers,addresses, web site URLs, or other such information that the viewer canuse to contact a merchant to purchase the advertised productsindependently of performing the transaction through the ticker 506.

After the viewer has responded to all of the items scrolled by theticker 506 that require a response, the viewer-entered information issent to the merchant. The ticker 506 can then continue to scrolladditional advertisements, in the event that the viewer wishes to makeadditional purchases or continue perusing advertised products.Accordingly, as shown and described above, providing the capability topresent advertisements within the ticker 506 and the capability toconduct the resulting transaction within the ticker 506 results inlittle or no interruption of the television program 404, since theticker only occupies a minority portion of the display screen 402. Byminimizing viewer annoyance while watching television, the chances thatthe viewer will attain and maintain an interest in an advertised productincreases.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of when the ticker 606 is invoked in amanner described above via the BUY button 430, except that theadvertisement information in the ticker 606 is not necessarilycontext-sensitive to the content of the television program 404. In FIG.6, the ticker 506 is scrolling advertisements from an Outdoors shoppingsubcategory 602 within the shopping category 520, while the basketballtelevision program 404 is playing (e.g., the ticker 506 is scrollingticker items unrelated to the television program 404). Since thenavigational control 524 is positioned on the Outdoors subcategory 602,the ticker 506 currently scrolls an advertisement 606 related to fishing(e.g., “Buy tackle”).

While the advertisement 606 is within the center focus box 528, theviewer can press the OK button 419 or the INFO button to conduct atransaction. Once the Outdoors advertisements finish scrolling, theticker 506 may scroll related news clips from the same shoppingsubcategory (e.g., a “Fishing season opens” headline 608) or scrolladvertisements from another shopping subcategory, such as a Kitchensubcategory 604.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram 700 illustrating components that can interactto present shopping information, including advertisements, in the ticker506 according to an embodiment of the invention. At least some of thecomponents of FIG. 7 can be embodied in software or othermachine-readable instruction stored on a machine-readable medium, suchas the storage medium 322. An embodiment of the ticker software includesa ticker user interface (UI) 702 that presents the ticker 406 on thedisplay screen 402, as well as being able to receive and process viewerresponses. A ticker application program interface (API) 704 interactswith the ticker UI 702 to control what the ticker UI displays, how todisplay, when to display, and so forth. In an embodiment, the ticker API704 provides shopping data to the ticker UI 702, as well as processinguser commands that interact with the shopping ticker during transactions(if necessary) and that are entered via the ticker UI 702.

The ticker API 704 interfaces with a plurality of applications 708.These applications can include a sports application, news application,weather application, or other applications associated with categoriesthat the ticker 406 can present to the viewer. A feed manager (FM) 706(or other software controller) operates to determine when new or updatedticker information is present and needs to be provided to the ticker API704. It is appreciated that some embodiments need not necessarilyimplement an API to integrate ticker functionality. In such embodiments,at least some of the ticker functionality can be coded into an operatingsystem without use of an API.

To generally describe operation of the ticker 506 in an exampleembodiment, the ticker API 704 logs and knows what the ticker 506 isdisplaying, and also knows how often the displayed information needs tobe refreshed (based on business rules or other requirements present infunctions defined in the ticker UI 702). In an embodiment, there may berules in the ticker UI level that define when at least some of theadvertisements are to be presented. If it is time for an update, theticker API 704 (acting as a container of data) calls a load functionthat will cause the feed manager 706 to loop through the applications708 to search for new data, and if there is new data, the feed manager706 will pass the new data from the application(s) 708 to the ticker API704 so that the ticker API 704 can pass the new data to the ticker UI702.

In another embodiment, the ticker API 704 manages the information thatthe ticker UI 702 will display, but it does not have knowledge of whatthe ticker UI 702 displays and when it is displayed. The ticker UI 702invokes the lower level components via method calls to retrieve businessobjects. This means that the invocations of these lower levels are donepotentially many times for each accessor/factory method to get aparticular business object (assuming that there may be more than onebusiness object needed to gather all data), including objects associatedwith advertisements. There are at least two routes that the ticker UI702 can take in an embodiment.

First, the ticker UI 702 invokes the feed manager 706. This is done insituations when the business object contains some data that needs to berefreshed periodically during the session. The feed manager 706 receivesseveral arguments that tell it which method in the ticker API 704 willreturn the business object, how frequently the feed manager 706 shouldpoll this business logic, and the name of the ticker UI variable (acollection such as an array) that holds the properties of the businessobject for the ticker UI 702 components to use and display. The feedmanager 706 calls the ticker API 704 immediately, and then at theintervals specified by the ticker UI 702. Second, the ticker UI 702invokes the ticker API 704 directly. This bypasses the feed manager 706and is done for data that only needs to be instantiated once during thesession.

In one embodiment for the ticker 506 where the feed manager 706 (not theticker API 704) knows when it is time for an update, the process can beas follows. The ticker UI 702 calls the ticker API 704 to start a feed.The ticker API 704 calls the feed manager 706, and the feed manager 706constructs a callback object. The feed manager 706 returns an emptyobject array to the ticker API 704, which in turn returns the emptyobject array to the ticker UI 702.

The feed manager 706 calls an appropriate application 708 for a businessobject, and the business object(s) is returned to the feed manager 706in an array, a copy of which is saved by the feed manager 706 as abusiness object array. The feed manager 706 returns the object array tothe ticker UI 702 can calls a HandleLoad function, for instance.

At a particular interval, the feed manager 706 calls an application 708for new information. The business objects are returned to the feedmanager 706 by the application 708 in an array, and the feed manager 706checks that array with the saved array for different information. If thecontent has changed, then the feed manager 706 returns an object arrayto the ticker UI 702 and calls a HandleLoad function. The ticker UI 702calls the ticker API 704 to stop a feed. The ticker API 704 calls thefeed manager 706 to stop the feed, and the feed manager 706 stops thefeed.

To obtain new ticker data, in an embodiment, the application(s) 708calls a Java server page (JSP) 710 at a web server (which may be locatedat the distribution server 218). Java objects at the web server willthen communicate with the database 208 to obtain the appropriate tickerinformation. The Java objects will then construct XML code from theticker information obtained from the database 208, and send the XML codeto the corresponding application 708. The application 708 then convertsthe XML code to local data objects, in one embodiment, and returns theobject(s) to the ticker API 704. The ticker API 704 subsequently sendsthe object(s) to the ticker UI 702 for display in the ticker 506.

In an embodiment, the ticker API 704 formats the data to be provided tothe ticker UI 702, including advertisement data, in a manner that theviewer can interact with the advertisement at the ticker UI 702 level.For instance, the ticker API 704 can format the ticker data to providesuch data with hypertext links or with other links to additional productinformation or to a merchant website. This formatting may includedefining objects or functions that link to such advertising information.

As an example illustrated in FIG. 7, the ticker API 704 can becommunicatively coupled to an advertisement application 712, so that theticker API 704 can be provided with advertisement data to pass to theticker UI 702 for presentation. Also, the ticker API 704 can communicatewith the advertisement application 712 to receive additionaladvertisement information requested by the viewer, to pass viewerresponses for transactions to the advertisement application 712, toobtain advertisement data from the advertisement application 712 forpresentation at the ticker UI 702 based on certain rules, or to performother operations.

In an embodiment, the advertisement application 712 can comprise asoftware module or program that can retrieve the requested advertisementinformation from an advertisement source 714, and then provide therequested information to the ticker API 704 or otherwise cause anadvertisement to be displayed on the display screen 402. One example ofthe advertisement application 712 is a browser, such as a web browser.In a browser-based or other implementation, the advertisementapplication 712 can include an HTML-to-text conversion component orother suitable conversion component that can convert an advertisementfrom an original format (such as HTML, audio, video, etc.) to a text orother data format suitable for presentation within the ticker 506.

In other examples, the advertisement application 712 can comprise othertypes of software, familiar to those skilled in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that can retrieve advertisements from theadvertisement source(s) 714, including servers, web sites, local storage(such as the storage medium 322 having advertisements downloadedtherein, which may be based on a viewer profile in some instances),carousel broadcast advertisement channel, or other sources depicted inFIGS. 1-2. The advertisement application 712 can include or otherwiseinteract with trigger processing software that process triggers in atelevision signal, and then use the information from the triggers toselect an in-context advertisement from the advertisement source 714.

The advertisement application 712 can provide the retrieved informationto the ticker API 708 so that the information can be formatted fordisplay within the ticker 406, such as depicted in FIGS. 5-6. It is tobe appreciated that in other embodiments, some of the advertisement data(including data associated with a transaction) can be communicatedbetween the ticker UI 702 and the advertisement application 712 withoutnecessarily having to go through the ticker API 704. Alternatively or inaddition, the advertisement application 712 can issue commands tocomponents of the client terminal 108 (such as the tuners 300 or 310, orthe input interface 318) so that these components can tune to theadvertisement source 714 to obtain advertisement data.

In one embodiment, the various data exchanged between the ticker API704, the application(s) 708, and the advertisement application 712 (suchas textual advertisement information to be displayed within the ticker506) can comprise objects, or arguments that are passed in calls. Thefeed manager 706 can operate in one embodiment to control thecommunication of data between the ticker API 704 and the advertisementapplication 712, including interacting with the advertisementapplication 712 to determine if there are updated advertisements thatare available. It is to be appreciated that the feed manager 706 neednot be involved in operations related to providing advertisements (andrelated transaction data) in some embodiments (and is thereforesymbolically depicted by a broken line 716 in FIG. 7).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart 800 illustrating invocation and presentation ofthe ticker 506 according to an embodiment of the invention. Elements ofthe flowchart 800 may be embodied in software or other machine-readableinstruction stored on a machine-readable medium, such as the storagemedium 322. Moreover, operations shown in the flowchart 800 need notnecessarily occur in the exact order shown.

Beginning at a block 802, a television program signal is received by theclient terminal 108, resulting in the display of the television program404 on the display screen 402. As described above, the televisionprogram signal may be non-interactive or may have interactivity thatdoes not include interactive purchase opportunities. Ticker data mayalso be received at the block 802, including ticker data that may bedownloaded or cached for later presentation, or ticker data that ispresented in a ticker shown along with the television program 404 (e.g.,a news ticker, sports ticker, or other ticker different from a shoppingticker that may be normally invoked with the ticker button 414).

At a block 804, software (in cooperation with suitable hardware) in theclient terminal 108 monitors whether the BUY button 430 has beenpressed. In one embodiment, such software can comprise the ticker UI702, such that if a signal or user command corresponding to a press ofthe BUY button 430 is received from the remote control 410, the tickerUI 702 causes the shopping ticker 506 to be rendered according to theconditions to be described below. In other embodiments, the software tomonitor for the press of the BUY button 430 and to determine ifconditions are appropriate for invoking the shopping ticker 506 cancomprise other software in the client terminal 430 that can instruct theticker UI 702 or other ticker software to invoke the ticker 506.

If the BUY button 430 has not been pressed at the block 804, then theclient terminal 108 continues to receive and present the televisionprogram signal at the block 802. If, however, the BUY button 430 hasbeen pressed, then the software determines at a block 806 whether acommerce opportunity is originally available with the television program404. This determination may be done, for instance, by processing thetelevision program signal to determine if the received user command(e.g., the pressing of the BUY button 430) is applicable to interactivepurchase triggers, merchant URLs, or other interactive purchaseinformation that has been sent with the television program signal. Ifsuch a commerce opportunity is originally available (e.g., thetelevision program 404 is presented along with an interactive purchasetrigger), then the method 800 proceeds to a block 808 to conduct aresulting transaction with the viewer. The transaction conducted withthe viewer at the block 808 can use techniques, user interfaces, orother processes and technology familiar to those skilled in the arthaving the benefit of this disclosure.

If an original commerce opportunity is determined to be unavailable atthe block 806 (such as if the received user command is inapplicable tointeractivity with the received television program signal or is unableto result in interaction with the television program, includingsituations where the received television program or its signal iscompletely non-interactive), then the method 800 proceeds to a block 810to invoke the shopping ticker 506 in response to the press of the BUYbutton 430. Invocation of the shopping ticker 506 at the block 810 cancomprise, at least initially, having the ticker UI 702 render the scrollregions, graphics, and other layout and format of the template for theshopping ticker 506. The operations at the block 810 can also includehaving the ticker API 704 work in conjunction with the feed manager 706and/or the advertisement application 712 to initially obtain (or getready to obtain) at least some of the shopping information to place intothe template of the shopping ticker 506.

For embodiments where the shopping information to be presented in theshopping ticker 506 is context-sensitive with the subject matter of thetelevision program 404, trigger processing software determines whethercontext and/or content triggers are available with the televisionprogram 404 at a block 812. Such triggers can include triggers thatidentify, for instance, the teams playing in a game, a sponsor ormerchant associated with a television commercial, time of year, names ofindividuals in the program, and so forth. These triggers are extracted,identified, or otherwise processed at a block 814, and used to selectand present context-sensitive shopping information in the shoppingticker 506. Such selection can include, for example in one embodiment,passing the trigger information to the advertisement application 712 andhaving the advertisement application 712 select the appropriateadvertisement(s) from the advertisement source 714 based on the triggerinformation. The selected advertisements are then passed by theadvertisement application 712 to the ticker API 704 or directly to theticker UI 702 for presentation within the shopping ticker 506.

For embodiments where the information in the shopping ticker 506 is notcontext-sensitive (or where context triggers are determined to beunavailable at the block 812), shopping information of a more generalnature is presented in the ticker 506 at a block 816. Thereafter, viewerresponses to the presented shopping information are processed at a block818, such as requests for additional details, menu selections, and otheractions associated with the purchase experience.

The above description of illustrated embodiments of the invention,including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention aredescribed herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalentmodifications are possible within the scope of the invention and can bemade without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention.

As an example, a satellite television (TV) delivery system may beimplemented alternatively or in addition to a cable distribution system.A satellite TV delivery system may comprise a direct broadcast satellite(DBS) system. A DBS system may comprise a small 18-inch satellite dish(which is an antenna for receiving a satellite broadcast signal); adigital integrated receiver/decoder (IRD), which separates each channel,and decompresses and translates the digital signal so a television canshow it; and a remote control. Programming for a DBS system may bedistributed, for example, by multiple high-power satellites ingeosynchronous orbit, each with multiple transponders. Compression(e.g., MPEG) is used to increase the amount of programming that can betransmitted in the available bandwidth.

A digital broadcast center (e.g., analogous to the head-end 106) may beused to gather programming content, ensure its digital quality, andtransmit the signal up to the satellites. Programming may come to thebroadcast center from content providers (TBS™, HBO™, CNN™, ESPN™, etc.)via satellite, fiber optic cable, and/or special digital tape.Satellite-delivered programming is typically immediately digitized,encrypted and uplinked to the orbiting satellites. The satellitesretransmit the signal back down to every earth-station—or, in otherwords, every compatible DBS system receiver dish at customers' homes andbusinesses.

Some programs may be recorded on digital videotape in the broadcastcenter to be broadcast later. Before any recorded programs are viewed bycustomers, technicians may use post-production equipment to view andanalyze each tape to ensure audio and video quality. Tapes may then beloaded into a robotic tape handling system, and playback may betriggered by a computerized signal sent from a broadcast automationsystem. Back-up videotape playback equipment may ensure uninterruptedtransmission when appropriate.

These and other modifications can be made to the invention in light ofthe above detailed description. The terms used in the following claimsshould not be construed to limit the invention to the specificembodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims. Rather, thescope of the invention is to be determined entirely by the followingclaims, which are to be construed in accordance with establisheddoctrines of claim interpretation.

All of the above U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications,U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applicationsand non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/orlisted in the Application Data Sheet, are incorporated herein byreference, in their entirety.

1. A method performed by an interactive television system, the methodcomprising: presenting a television program provided via a televisionprogram signal on a display screen; receiving, after the televisionprogram has begun being presented on the display screen, aspecifically-designated user command for making a purchase; determining,in direct response to receiving the specifically-designated usercommand, whether an interactive commerce opportunity is explicitlyprovided for the television program; and in response to said interactivecommerce opportunity not being explicitly provided: determining whethera context trigger has been previously received with the televisionprogram; and in response to a context trigger having been previouslyreceived with the television program, superimposing a ticker over thepresented television program, the ticker comprising a context-sensitiveadvertisement related to the television program, the advertisement beingselected based on the context trigger.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereinreceiving comprises detecting activation by a user of aspecifically-designated button on a user input device for making apurchase while showing a full-screen presentation of a televisionprogram.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: in response to ashopping trigger having not been received with the television program,superimposing a ticker over the presented television program, the tickercomprising an advertisement that is not context-sensitive.
 4. The methodof claim 2 wherein the button on the user input device comprises a BUYbutton.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the user command isspecifically designated to initiate a purchase related to subject matterof the presented television program.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe context trigger comprises an ATVEF trigger.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein the context trigger is received independent of electronicprogram guide data.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the context triggeris received within a vertical blanking interval of the televisionprogram.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising conducting atransaction with a user within the ticker, if the user responds to theadvertisement in the ticker.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinsuperimposing a ticker comprises displaying a scrolling ticker in whichthe advertisement is scrolled into and out of a center-focus area. 11.The method of claim 10, wherein displaying a scrolling ticker compriseshorizontally scrolling the advertisement within the ticker.
 12. Themethod of claim 10, wherein displaying a scrolling ticker comprisesvertically scrolling the advertisement within the ticker.
 13. The methodof claim 10, further comprising initiating an interactive commerceopportunity in response to a second user command being received when theadvertisement scrolls into the center-focus area.
 14. An article ofmanufacture, comprising: a machine-readable medium having instructionsstored thereon to: detect activation by a user of aspecifically-designated button on a user input device for making apurchase while showing a full-screen presentation of a televisionprogram; determine, in direct response to activation of saidspecifically-designated button, whether an interactive commerceopportunity is explicitly provided for the television program; and inresponse to said interactive commerce opportunity not being explicitlyprovided: determine whether a context trigger has been previouslyreceived with the television program; and in response to a contexttrigger having been previously received with the television program,superimpose a ticker over the presented television program, the tickercomprising a context-sensitive advertisement selected based on thecontext trigger.
 15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 wherein thecontext trigger comprises an ATVEF trigger.
 16. The article ofmanufacture of claim 15 wherein the context trigger is receivedindependent of electronic program guide data.
 17. The article ofmanufacture of claim 14 wherein the specifically-designated buttoncorresponds to a BUY button.
 18. The article of manufacture of claim 14wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions storedthereon to conduct a transaction within the ticker in response to theadvertisement.
 19. An apparatus, comprising: a means for detectingactivation by a user of a button on a user input device for making apurchase while showing a full-screen presentation of a televisionprogram; a means for determining, in direct response to activation ofsaid button, whether an interactive commerce opportunity is explicitlyprovided for the television program; and a means for determining, inresponse to said interactive commerce opportunity not being explicitlyprovided, whether a context trigger has been previously received withthe television program and, in response to a context trigger having beenpreviously received with the television program, displaying a ticker inconnection with the presented television program, the ticker comprisinga context-sensitive advertisement selected using the context trigger.20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising a means for selectingthe advertisement to be in context with subject matter of the presentedtelevision program.
 21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the contexttrigger comprises an ATVEF trigger.
 22. An apparatus for a video castingsystem, the apparatus comprising: at least one communication interfaceto receive a signal having a television program; an output section todisplay a presentation of the television program; a wireless interfaceto detect activation of a specifically-designated button on a user inputdevice to make a purchase during the presentation of the televisionprogram; a storage medium coupled to the wireless interface to store asoftware program; a processor, coupled to the storage medium and to thecommunication and wireless interfaces, to cooperate with the softwareprogram to determine, in direct response to activation of saidspecifically-designated button, whether an interactive commerceopportunity is explicitly provided for the television program; and inresponse to said interactive commerce opportunity not being explicitlyprovided: determine whether a context trigger has been previouslyreceived with the television program; and in response to a contexttrigger having been previously received with the television program,display a ticker on the presented television program, the tickercomprising a context-sensitive advertisement selected based on thecontext trigger.
 23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the softwareprogram includes a ticker software program having: a ticker userinterface (UI) to present the advertisement within the ticker; a tickerapplication program interface (API) in communication with the ticker UIto control presentation of the advertisement by the ticker UI; and anadvertisement application in communication with the ticker API to selectand provide the advertisement to the ticker API.
 24. The apparatus ofclaim 23 wherein the advertisement application includes code to selectthe advertisement to be context-sensitive to subject matter of thetelevision program.
 25. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein thespecifically-designated button comprises a BUY button.
 26. A videocasting system, comprising: a source of ticker data; and an apparatuscoupled to the source, the apparatus including: at least onecommunication interface to receive a signal having a television program;an output section to display a presentation of the television program; awireless interface to receive a user command during the presentation ofthe television program; a storage medium coupled to the wirelessinterface to store a software program; a processor, coupled to thestorage medium and to the communication and wireless interfaces, tocooperate with the software program to determine, in direct response toactivation of said user command, whether an interactive commerceopportunity is explicitly provided for the television program inresponse to the user command; and in response to said interactivecommerce opportunity not being explicitly provided, superimpose a tickerover the presented television program, the ticker comprising acontext-sensitive advertisement selected based on a previously-receivedcontext trigger.
 27. The system of claim 26 wherein the software programincludes code to select the advertisement to be in context with subjectmatter of the television program.
 28. The system of claim 26 wherein thespecifically-designated button comprises a BUY button.
 29. The system ofclaim 26 wherein the context trigger comprises an ATVEF trigger.
 30. Amethod usable in a video casting system, the method comprising:receiving a signal having a television program and showing a full-screenpresentation of the television program on a display screen, wherein thedisplay screen comprises at least a part of a television for the videocasting system, wherein a client terminal for the television is coupledto the display screen, wherein the video casting system includes aplurality of sources, which provide ticker data for a ticker capable ofbeing rendered on the display screen, the plurality of sources beingcommunicatively coupled to a plurality of broadcast centers, wherein atleast one of the broadcast centers is coupled to a server capable toprovide the ticker data from the sources to the client terminal, andwherein the video casting system is capable to provide the ticker datato the client terminal via different communication channels, includingat least one of a plurality of television broadcast channels, anout-of-band channel, and a communication channel with a communicationnetwork; receiving a user command at the client terminal; detectingactivation by a user during the presentation of the television programof a specifically-designated button on a user input device for making apurchase; determining, in direct response to said activation, whether aninteractive commerce opportunity is explicitly provided for thetelevision program; and in response to said interactive commerceopportunity not being explicitly provided, superimposing a scrollingticker over the presented television program, the ticker comprising acontext-sensitive advertisement that is horizontally or verticallyscrolled through a center-focus area of the ticker.
 31. The method ofclaim 30, further comprising selecting the advertisement in the tickerto be context-sensitive to subject matter of the television program. 32.The method of claim 30 wherein the specifically-designated buttoncomprises a BUY button.
 33. A video casting system, comprising: a sourceof ticker data including: a feed server to receive a plurality of feedsof ticker data and having a feed engine to manipulate the ticker datareceived from the feeds; a production server coupled to the feed serverto receive the ticker data manipulated by the feed engine, and coupledto a database having tables for the manipulated ticker data receivedfrom the feed server, the production server being capable to change aformat of the manipulated ticker data to a format compatible with clientterminals configured to present a screen interface on a display screen;and a distribution server to send the manipulated ticker data having theformat compatible with the client terminals; and an apparatus coupled tothe distribution server of the source, the apparatus including: at leastone communication interface to receive a signal having a televisionprogram; an output section to display a full-screen presentation of thetelevision program; a wireless interface to receive a user commandduring said full-screen presentation of the television program; astorage medium coupled to the wireless interface to store a softwareprogram; a processor, coupled to the storage medium and to thecommunication and wireless interfaces, to cooperate with the softwareprogram to determine, in direct response to said user command, whetheran interactive commerce opportunity is explicitly provided for the usercommand in the television program and, in response to said interactivecommerce opportunity not being explicitly provided, determine whether acontext trigger has been previously received with the television programand, in response to a context trigger having been previously receivedwith the television program, superimpose a ticker over the presentedtelevision program, the ticker comprising a context-sensitiveadvertisement selected based on the context trigger.
 34. The system ofclaim 33 wherein the source of ticker data comprises part of a satellitetelevision delivery system.
 35. The system of claim 33 wherein thespecifically-designated button comprises a BUY button.
 36. The system ofclaim 33 wherein the software program comprises part of an operatingsystem of the apparatus, the software program including code related tooperation of the ticker.
 37. The system of claim 33 wherein thetelevision program comprises a television commercial.